School May Soon Offer Football

Parents, Football Supporters Have Pledged To Cover The Full Cost

December 14, 2007|By DAVID PAULSEN; Special to The Courant

GRANBY — The town's high school is on the verge of becoming the latest in the region to expand its athletics program onto the football field.

Students will have the opportunity next fall to try out for a new junior varsity team at Granby High School if the school board gives its final approval next month. A divided board gave preliminary approval Wednesday evening.

A football team "would provide an additional option to Granby students to participate in a fall sport," board Chairman Cal Heminway said. "And we are admittedly one of the few high schools of our size in the state without a football program."

Yet Heminway abstained from the vote Wednesday, saying he didn't yet have enough evidence of student interest and financial support in the community. Board members Ed Ohannessian, John O'Connor and Matt Wutka voted for the team, while Ron Walther and Marie Nicholls voted no. Deborah Torgersen was absent.

Canton High School fielded its own football team for a second season this year. And in Burlington and Harwinton, the school board voted in November to establish a team next fall at Lewis S. Mills High School.

The type of funding would be a key difference between Lewis Mills and Granby. At Lewis Mills, the school board agreed to spend at least $5,000 a year on the team, with parents and fundraising covering the rest of the cost.

Taxpayers in Granby are reluctant to pay for a high school team, so parents and football supporters have pledged to cover the full cost, about $90,000 in the first two years.

Other concerns have included player safety, the lack of playing fields and the unknown level of participation. But Granby board members also acknowledged the research, planning and community support shown by the booster club that is pushing for a Granby High School football program.

Rose Stone, president of the booster club, said the club will continue raising money while it works with high school principal Alan Addley to present a final plan for a board vote Jan. 16.

"There's a large group of people who want football," said Stone, whose three sons attend Granby High School. If the Granby team is approved, her two younger sons intend to be among an estimated 70 students who will try out for 40 spots on the team.

This isn't the first time parents like Stone have advocated a hometown football team in Granby, but it is the closest they have come to succeeding.